💥UPSC 2026, 2027, 2028 UAP Mentorship (March Batch) + Access XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Type: Prelims Only

  • Civil Aviation Sector – CA Policy 2016, UDAN, Open Skies, etc.

    What caused the great Indian Airport jam?

    Prelims Only | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: NA

    Mains level: Airport traffic management

    airport

    As more passengers take to the skies, airports in India’s top cities—Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru—are witnessing heavy traffic.

    What is causing congestion at airports?

    • There are lengthy queues at airport entry, check-in counters, security, and immigration.
    • There is crowding at baggage claim areas too.
    • This is the result of an unexpected surge in demand for air travel because of the holiday season—the last two years saw muted demand during this period because of the pandemic.
    • Air traffic has been 1-7% above pre-covid levels of 4 lakh daily flyers for the past 10 days.
    • Consequently, the personnel strength of CISF at check-in, the number of X-Ray machines and automatic trays for security, as well as baggage belts, have fallen short in handling the demand.

    Which airports are most affected?

    • The congestion is more severe at airports with maximum connectivity such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
    • The worst-hit is Delhi—the busiest airport in India and 10th busiest in the world.
    • Delhi handles the largest share of international as well as domestic air traffic in the country with a 27% share in international segment for the country and 20% in overall air traffic in India.
    • The airport, with three terminals, has a capacity to handle around 70 million passengers per annum.
    • Over the last 10 days, the airport has handled over 190,000 passengers daily, which is close to its full capacity.

    Is airport congestion an India-specific problem?

    • Globally, air travel continues to face disruptions.
    • Europe’s busiest airport, London Heathrow, needs to hire around 25,000 staff to manage peak hours.
    • Schiphol in Amsterdam has imposed a 20% cap on capacity to manage traffic.
    • The aviation industry laid off thousands of people during the pandemic, and expects staff strength to realign by mid-2023.

    What is being done to decongest airports?

    • The aviation ministry has recommended a reduction in the number of flights and more manpower at all check-in and baggage drop counters.
    • It has sought for increasing the number of X-ray machines and baggage trays for security check.
    • The government will also analyse manpower requirements at immigration counters and, if required, additional personnel will be deployed.
    • IndiGo, the largest airline in India, has asked fliers to report 3.5 hours early for domestic flights from Delhi.

    Easing the airport congestion  

    • There is no immediate solution, and the government’s action plan will only bring temporary relief. Increasing the number of personnel at entry, security, and immigration will take time.
    • Higher usage of the contactless travel platform—Digi Yatra—for passengers without check-in luggage is expected to ease the congestion a bit.
    • Cities like Delhi and Mumbai need additional infrastructure.
    • However, the Jewar airport in Noida and the Navi Mumbai airport are expected to be operational only by 2024.

     

    Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes

    (Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • GI(Geographical Indicator) Tags

    GI tag sought for Beypore Uru

    Prelims Only | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Intellectual Property Rights

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Beypore Uru, GI Tags in news

    Mains level: Not Much

    beypore uru

    The District Tourism Promotion Council, Kozhikode has applied for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the famous Beypore Uru (boat).

    Beypore Uru

    • Beypore Uru is a wooden dhow (ship / sailing boat / sailing vessel) handcrafted by skilled artisans and carpenters in Beypore, Kerala.
    • They are a symbol of Kerala’s trade relations and friendship with the Gulf countries.
    • It is purely made of premium wood, without using any modern techniques.
    • The wood used is still sawed the traditional way which requires immense expertise.
    • It takes anywhere between 1-4 years to build each Uru and the entire process is done manually.

    Its historic significance

    • Historical records show that Beypore has been a legendary maritime hub for traders from across the world since the 1st Century C.E.
    • The iconic Uru ships have been in high demand for around 2000 years.
    • The history of Khalasis, skilled natives engaged in launching the Uru boats at Beypore, dates back to 2000 years.
    • The prominent people among them are Odayis. They manage the technical matters of ship building.
    • Their family name comes from Odam (a type of small ship previously used in interactions/trade between the Malabar coast and Lakshadweep).
    • They are also referred to as Mappila Khalasis as majority of them are Mappila Muslims.

     

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.With reference to ‘Changpa’ community of India, consider the following statement:

    1. They live mainly in the State of Uttarakhand.
    2. They rear the Pashmina goats that yield fine wool.
    3. They are kept in the category of Scheduled Tribes.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

    Post your answers here.

     

    Back2Basics: Geographical Indication (GI)

    • A GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
    • Nodal Agency: Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry
    • India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 w.e.f. September 2003.
    • GIs have been defined under Article 22 (1) of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.
    • The tag stands valid for 10 years.

     

     

    Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes

    (Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Pakistan

    Back in news: Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

    Prelims Only | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: OIC

    Mains level: Pakistani narrative for Kashmir

    oic

    India strongly condemned the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation chief’s visit to Line of Control (LoC) from the Pakistani side.

    What is OIC?

    • The OIC — formerly Organisation of the Islamic Conference — is the world’s second-largest inter-governmental organization after the UN, with a membership of 57 states.
    • The OIC’s stated objective is “to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world”.
    • OIC has reserved membership for Muslim-majority countries. Russia, Thailand, and a couple of other small countries have Observer status.

    India and OIC

    • At the 45th session of the Foreign Ministers’ Summit in 2018, Bangladesh suggested that India, where more than 10% of the world’s Muslims live, should be given Observer status.
    • In 1969, India was dis-invited from the Conference of Islamic Countries in Rabat, Morocco at Pakistan’s behest.
    • Then Agriculture Minister Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was dis-invited upon arrival in Morocco after Pakistan President Yahya Khan lobbied against Indian participation.

    Recent developments

    • In 2019, India made its maiden appearance at the OIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Abu Dhabi, as a “guest of honor”.
    • This first-time invitation was seen as a diplomatic victory for New Delhi, especially at a time of heightened tensions with Pakistan following the Pulwama attack.
    • Pakistan had opposed the invitation to Swaraj and it boycotted the plenary after the UAE turned down its demand to rescind the invitation.
    • Earlier this year, the ousted Pakistani PM called a OIC summit which ended up without any remarks.

    What is the OIC’s stand on Kashmir?

    • It has been generally supportive of Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir and has issued statements criticizing India.
    • Last year, after India revoked Article 370 in Kashmir, Pakistan lobbied with the OIC for their condemnation of the move.
    • To Pakistan’s surprise, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — both top leaders among the Muslim countries — issued nuanced statements, and were not as harshly critical of New Delhi as Islamabad had hoped.
    • Since then, Islamabad has tried to rouse sentiments among the Islamic countries, but only a handful of them — Turkey and Malaysia — publicly criticized India.

    How has India been responding?

    • India has consistently underlined that J&K is an integral part of India and is a matter strictly internal to India.
    • The strength with which India has made this assertion has varied slightly at times, but never the core message.
    • It has maintained its “consistent and well known” stand that the OIC had no locus standi.
    • India asserts that- OIC has become a “mouthpiece” of Pakistan and that the organisation has been taking “blatantly communal, partisan and factually incorrect approach to issues”.

    OIC members and India

    • Individually, India has good relations with almost all member nations. Ties with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, especially, have looked up significantly in recent years.
    • The OIC includes two of India’s close neighbors, Bangladesh and Maldives.
    • Indian diplomats say both countries privately admit they do not want to complicate their bilateral ties with India on Kashmir but play along with OIC.

    Way ahead

    • India now sees the duality of the OIC as untenable, since many of these countries have good bilateral ties and convey to India to ignore OIC statements.
    • But these countries sign off on the joint statements which are largely drafted by Pakistan.
    • India feels it important to challenge the double-speak since Pakistan’s campaign and currency on the Kashmir issue have hardly any takers in the international community.

     

    Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes

    (Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • NPA Crisis

    What is a Loan Write-Off?

    Prelims Only | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Loan Write-Off

    Mains level: NPAs

    Banks have written off bad loans worth ₹10,09,511 crore during the last five financial years, finance minister informed the Parliament.

    What is a loan write-off?

    • Writing off a loan essentially means it will no longer be counted as an asset.
    • By writing off loans, a bank can reduce the level of non-performing assets (NPAs) on its books.
    • The bank moves the defaulted loan, or NPA, out of the assets side and reports the amount as a loss.
    • An additional benefit is that the amount so written off reduces the bank’s tax liability.
    • The loans written off by the banks are the depositors’ money.

    Why do banks resort to write-offs?

    • Recovery issues: The bank writes off a loan after the borrower has defaulted on the loan repayment and there is a very low chance of recovery. However, the chances of recovery from written-off loans are very low.
    • Provisioning: After the write-off, banks are supposed to continue their efforts to recover the loan using various options. They have to make provisioning as well.
    • Reduce tax liability: The tax liability will also come down as the written-off amount is reduced from the profit.

    Who is at the forefront of write-offs?

    • Public sector banks reported the lion’s share of write-offs at Rs 734,738 crore accounting for 72.78 per cent of the exercise.
    • Among individual public sector banks, reduction in NPAs due to write-offs in the case of State Bank of India Rs 204,486 crore in the last five years.
    • Among private banks, ICICI Bank’s reduction in NPAs due to write-offs was Rs 50,514 crore in the last five years.
    • Axis Bank wrote off Rs 49,715 crore and HDFC Bank Rs 34,782 crore during the period, according to the RBI.

    What about recovery of such loans?

    • Since the loan account is not closed in write-off, the right to recovery of the amount is not waived by the lender or the bank.
    • The bank or lender can try to recover the loan amount from the loan defaulter.

    Back2Basics: Non-Performing Assets (NPAs)

    • A NPA is a loan or advance for which the principal or interest payment remained overdue for a period of 90 days.
    • Banks are required to classify NPAs further into Substandard, Doubtful and Loss assets.
    1. Substandard assets: Assets which has remained NPA for a period less than or equal to 12 months.
    2. Doubtful assets: An asset would be classified as doubtful if it has remained in the substandard category for a period of 12 months.
    3. Loss assets: As per RBI, “Loss asset is considered uncollectible and of such little value that its continuance as a bankable asset is not warranted, although there may be some salvage or recovery value.”

    Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes

    (Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Nuclear Energy

    US scientists announce breakthrough in Fusion Energy

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Fusion Energy

    Mains level: Clean energy developments

    fusion

    US announced a “major scientific breakthrough” in the decades-long quest to harness fusion, the energy that powers the sun and stars.

    What is Fusion?

    • Fusion works by pressing hydrogen atoms into each other with such force that they combine into helium, releasing enormous amounts of energy and heat.
    • This process occurs in our Sun and other stars.
    • Creating conditions for fusion on Earth involves generating and sustaining a plasma.
    • Plasmas are gases that are so hot that electrons are freed from atomic nuclei.

    How is it carried out?

    fusion

    • Three conditions must be fulfilled to achieve fusion in a laboratory:
    1. Very high temperature (on the order of 150,000,000° Celsius);
    2. Sufficient plasma particle density (to increase the likelihood that collisions do occur); and
    3. Sufficient confinement time (to hold the plasma, which has a propensity to expand, within a defined volume).
    • At extreme temperatures, electrons are separated from nuclei and a gas becomes a plasma—often referred to as the fourth state of matter.
    • Fusion plasmas provide the environment in which light elements can fuse and yield energy.

    Fusion Energy

    • The process releases energy because the total mass of the resulting single nucleus is less than the mass of the two original nuclei.
    • The leftover mass becomes energy.

    What did the US achieve?

    • The US experiment uses a process called inertial confinement fusion.
    • It involved bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser.

    Why is it perceived as energy of the future?

    • Carbon free: Fusion Reactions could one day produce nearly limitless, carbon-free energy, displacing fossil fuels and other traditional energy sources.
    • Efficient: Net energy gain has been an elusive goal because fusion happens at such high temperatures and pressures that it is incredibly difficult to control.
    • Clean: Unlike other nuclear reactions, it doesn’t create radioactive waste.

    Fusion still far from reality. Why?

    • Significant though the achievement is, it does little to bring the goal of producing electricity from fusion reactions any closer to reality.
    • By all estimates, use of the fusion process for generating electricity at a commercial scale is still two to three decades away.
    • The technology used in the US experiment might take even longer to get deployed.

    India’s progress: ITER project

    • International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today.
    • The idea for an international joint experiment in fusion was first launched in 1985.
    • In southern France, 35 nations* are collaborating to build the world’s largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion.
    • ITER is funded and run by seven member parties: China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

     

    Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes

    (Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Innovations in Biotechnology and Medical Sciences

    What is Base Editing?

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Base Editing

    Mains level: Not Much

    A teenage cancer patient suffering from T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) has defeated her seemingly incurable cancer with the help of base editing technique.

    Base Editing

    • Bases are the language of life. The four types of base – adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T) – are the building blocks of our genetic code.
    • Just as letters in the alphabet spell out words that carry meaning, the billions of bases in our DNA spell out the instruction manual for our body.
    • Base editing allows scientists to zoom to a precise part of the genetic code and then alter the molecular structure of just one base, converting it into another and changing the genetic instructions.
    • The large team of doctors and scientists used this tool to engineer a new type of T-cell that was capable of hunting down and killing cancerous T-cells.

    base-editing

    What is T-Cell?

    • T (thymus) cells are type of white blood cell.
    • They are part of the immune system and develop from stem cells in the bone marrow.
    • They help protect the body from infection and may help fight cancer.
    • Also called T lymphocyte and thymocyte.

    How base editing helped this teenage cancer patient?

    • Doctors started with healthy T-cells that came from a donor and set about modifying them.
    • The first base edit disabled the T-cells targeting mechanism so they would not assault patient’s body.
    • The second removed a chemical marking, called CD7, which is on all T-cells.
    • The third edit was an invisibility cloak that prevented the cells being killed by a chemotherapy drug.
    • The final stage of genetic modification instructed the T-cells to go hunting for anything with the CD7 marking on it so that it would destroy every T-cell in patient’s body – including the cancerous ones.
    • That’s why this marking has to be removed from the therapy – otherwise it would just destroy itself.
    • If the therapy works, the patient’s immune system – including T-cells – will be rebuilt with the second bone-marrow transplant.

     

    Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes

    (Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • International Space Agencies – Missions and Discoveries

    In news: Geminids meteor shower

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Geminids meteoric shower

    Mains level: Not Much

    geminids

    Bengalurians are all set to witness the annual Geminids meteor shower.

    What are meteor showers?

    • Meteors are usually fragments of comets.
    • As they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, they burn up, creating a spectacular “shower”.
    • Meteors come from leftover comet particles and bits from asteroids.
    • When these objects come around the Sun, they leave a dusty trail behind them.
    • Every year Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere where they disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky.

    What makes the Geminids unique?

    • Geminids is one of the brightest and most reliable annual meteor showers.
    • They are unique because unlike most meteor showers, they originate not from a comet, but from an asteroid, the 3200 Phaethon.
    • The 3200 Phaethon was discovered on October 11, 1983.
    • It is named after the Greek mythology character Phaethon, son of the Sun God Helios.
    • It takes 1.4 years to complete one round of the Sun.
    • As the 3200 Phaethon moves close to the Sun while orbiting it, the rocks on its surface heat up and break off.
    • When the Earth passes through the trail of this debris, the Geminids are caused.

    Why are they called Geminids?

    • That comes from the constellation Gemini, from whose location in the sky the meteor shower appears to originate.
    • The constellation for which a meteor shower is named only serves to aid viewers in determining which shower they are viewing on a given night.
    • The constellation is not the source of the meteors.

    Back2Basics:

    gemenids

     

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

    What are Western Disturbances?

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Important Geophysical Phenomena

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Western Disturbances

    Mains level: Not Much

    disturbance

    The days have been unusually warm for winter in New Delhi with the maximum temperature remaining above normal mostly on account of fewer western disturbances affecting this year.

    Western Disturbances

    • A western disturbance is an extratropical storm originating in the Mediterranean region that brings sudden winter rain to the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent.
    • They are labelled as an extra-tropical storm originating in the Mediterranean, is an area of low pressure that brings sudden showers, snow, and fog in northwest India.
    • In the term “extra-tropical storm”, storm refers to low pressure. “Extra-tropical” means outside the tropics. As the WD originates outside the tropical region, the word “extra-tropical” has been associated with them.
    • It is a non-monsoonal precipitation pattern driven by the westerlies.
    • The moisture in these storms usually originates over the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.
    • Extratropical storms are global phenomena with moisture usually carried in the upper atmosphere, unlike their tropical counterparts where the moisture is carried in the lower atmosphere.
    • In the case of the Indian subcontinent, moisture is sometimes shed as rain when the storm system encounters the Himalayas.
    • Western disturbances are more frequent and strong in the winter season.

    Impact: Winter Rainfall and Extreme Cold

    • Western disturbances, specifically the ones in winter, bring moderate to heavy rain in low-lying areas and heavy snow to mountainous areas of the Indian Subcontinent.
    • They are the cause of most winter and pre-monsoon season rainfall across northwest India.
    • An average of four to five western disturbances forms during the winter season.

    Its significance

    • Precipitation during the winter season has great importance in agriculture, particularly for the rabi crops.
    • Wheat among them is one of the most important crops, which helps to meet India’s food security.

    Try this PYQ:

    Consider the following statements:

    1. The winds which blow between 30°N and 60°S latitudes throughout the year are known as westerlies.
    2. The moist air masses that cause winter rains in the North-Western region of India are part of westerlies.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) Only 1

    (b) Only 2

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    Post your answers here.

     

    Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes

    (Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

    [pib] 150th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo’s

    Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Sri Aurobindo Ghosh

    Mains level: NA

    aurobindo

    PM will participate in a program commemorating Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary.

    Sri Aurobindo (1872 –1950)

    • Sri Aurobindo Ghose was a philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist.
    • He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as Vande Mataram.
    • He joined the Indian movement for independence from British colonial rule, until 1910 was one of its influential leaders.

    Major activities                

    • Aurobindo studied for the Indian Civil Service at King’s College, Cambridge, England.
    • After returning to India he took up various civil service works under the Maharaja of the Princely state of Baroda.
    • He became increasingly involved in nationalist politics in the Indian National Congress and the nascent revolutionary movement in Bengal with the Anushilan Samiti.
    • He was arrested in the aftermath of a number of bombings linked to his organization in a public trial where he faced charges of treason for Alipore Conspiracy.
    • However, Sri Aurobindo could only be convicted and imprisoned for writing articles against British colonial rule in India.

     

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. What was the main reason for the split in the Indian National Congress at Surat in 1907?

    (a) Introduction of communalism into Indian politics by Lord Minto

    (b) Extremists’ lack of faith in the capacity of the moderates to negotiate with the British Government

    (c) Foundation of Muslim League

    (d) Aurobindo Ghosh’s inability to be elected as the President of the Indian national Congress

     

    Post your answers here.

     

    Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes

    (Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

    Cyclone Mandous makes landfall in Tamil Nadu

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Cyclone Mandous

    Mains level: Tropical Cyclones

    mandous

    Cyclone Mandous crossed the north Tamil Nadu coast with fierce winds and heavy downpour.

    Cyclone Mandous

    • ‘Mandous’ was a name submitted by WMO member United Arab Emirates and is pronounced as ‘Man-Dous.’
    • It means ‘treasure box’ in Arabic.

    What are Tropical Cyclones?

    • A tropical cyclone is an intense circular storm that originates over warm tropical oceans and is characterized by low atmospheric pressure, high winds, and heavy rain.
    • Cyclones are formed over slightly warm ocean waters. The temperature of the top layer of the sea, up to a depth of about 60 meters, need to be at least 28°C to support the formation of a cyclone.
    • This explains why the April-May and October-December periods are conducive for cyclones.
    • Then, the low level of air above the waters needs to have an ‘anticlockwise’ rotation (in the northern hemisphere; clockwise in the southern hemisphere).
    • During these periods, there is an ITCZ in the Bay of Bengal whose southern boundary experiences winds from west to east, while the northern boundary has winds flowing east to west.
    • Once formed, cyclones in this area usually move northwest. As it travels over the sea, the cyclone gathers more moist air from the warm sea which adds to its heft.

    Requirements for a Cyclone to form

    There are six main requirements for tropical cyclogenesis:

    • Sufficiently warm sea surface temperatures
    • Atmospheric instability
    • High humidity in the lower to middle levels of the troposphere
    • Enough Coriolis force to develop a low-pressure centre
    • A pre-existing low-level focus or disturbance
    • Low vertical wind shear

    How are the cyclones named?

    • In 2000, a group of nations called WMO/ESCAP (World Meteorological Organisation/United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) decided to name cyclones.
    • It comprised Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, decided to start naming cyclones in the region.
    • After each country sent in suggestions, the WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC) finalized the list.
    • The WMO/ESCAP expanded to include five more countries in 2018 — Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

    Basics

    Cyclones

    • The atmospheric disturbances which involve a closed circulation of air around a low pressure at the center and high pressure at the periphery, rotating anti-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere (due to the Coriolis force) are called “cyclones”.

    Cyclones are broadly classified into two types based on the latitudes of their origin-

    • Tropical cyclones
    • Temperate/Extra-tropical cyclones

    Tropical Cyclones

    • Tropical cyclones develop in the region between the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer. These are violent storms that originate over oceans in tropical areas and move on to the coastal regions bringing large-scale destruction caused by violent winds, very heavy rainfall and storm surges. These cyclones are one of the most devastating natural calamities.
    • Tropical cyclones mostly move along with the direction of trade winds, so they travel from east to west and make landfall on the eastern coasts of the continents.
    • Tropical cyclones are known by different names depending on the regions of the world. They are known as Hurricanes in the Atlantic, Typhoons in the Western Pacific and South China Sea, Willy-willies in Western Australia and Cyclones in the Indian Ocean.

    Temperate Cyclones/Extra-Tropical Cyclones

    • It occurs between 30°-60° latitude in both hemispheres (in between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic circle in the northern hemisphere and in between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle in the southern hemisphere).
    • These cyclones move with the westerlies and are therefore oriented from west to east.

    Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes

    (Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now